John Bratt, who teaches classes including geography and Oklahoma history at Dove Science Academy, brought several of his students to this week’s city council meeting to share their ideas for a more eye-catching city standard.

Noting how the city has grown, Bratt said his main goal was “to get the conversation started.”

While “city pride is at an all-time high,” he said, the current flag — a version of the city seal on a white field with a red border — doesn’t measure up.

Oklahoma City’s flag finished 130th out of 150 city flags in an Internet poll sponsored by the North American Vexillological Association, which concerns itself with such matters.

Across the country, top-rated city flags are being transferred to fridge magnets, T-shirts, coffee mugs, postcards, even an iPhone case and men’s ties.

Des Moines, Iowa, put its flag on a lampshade.

NBA towns including Washington, D.C., Chicago, Denver, Phoenix and San Antonio all have popular designs.

In fact, Washington, Chicago and Denver finished 1-2-3 in the poll.

Even Wichita, Kan., has a popular design.

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Why a flag?

The Vexillological Association says a flag’s purpose is, in part, to represent a place. It should be recognizable from a distance and capable of being reproduced “in quantity and in many sizes.”

No. 4 on the association’s list of dos and don’ts is “no lettering or seals,” Oklahoma City’s precise sin.

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by William Crum

Reporter

OU and Norman High School graduate, formerly worked as a reporter and editor for the Associated Press, the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, and the Norman Transcript. Married, two children, lives in Norman.